I think Azulon is supposed to be Sozen's son, based on Iroh's quote from the premiere that "your father, grandfather and great-grandfather all tried and failed to capture the Avatar."????

Hmmm.... maybe Sozin was only??16 or 17??when he took over the Fire Nation.?? If Zuko takes over and stays good, that would provide the show with some symmetry, huh??? Evil teenage fire lord-- good teenage fire lord.?? Just a thought.

Maylene:?? The answer, in full, is far more complex.?? It appears Zuko's mother was responsible for the death of Azulon (Zuko's gradfather and Fire Lord).?? She killed him to protect Zuko from Azulon's order that Osai kill Zuko in retribution for unkind remarks made my Osai concerning the death of Iroh's son during the storming of am Earth Kingdom city.?? Through her actions, her husband became Fire Lord and Zuko's life was spared.

Her ultimate fate is not yet known.?? She literally diappeared before Azulon's funeral. I had assumed she was executed, but some wiser viewers have noted she is probably in hiding.?? Also, I am assuming she killed Azulon.?? However, reflecting on the psychotic, power-hungry cravings of Azula, it may be the daughter that was responsible for placing Osai on the throne.

Stay tuned!

PS.?? What is Zuko's mother's name?????

Ursa

No previews that I know of, just the description in the Episode guide here.?? It is a TV movie (kind of like the 1-hour Fairy Idol, just 100 times??better).?? The episode guide says it will air July 14.

One more thing regarding Ursa and a mistake a lot of viewers seem to be making-- there is no direct evidence linking Ursa with Azulon's murder.?? In fact, we don't even know??for sure if??he was murdered, although his sudden death was pretty suspicious.?? I think the writers are setting a little surprise trap for us... they tried to make it look??like Ursa might be involved by??timing her sudden departure with Azulon's death.??

Nope, looks to be true. ?? But we've had a lot of new episodes, this will give Nick a chance to show some season 2 reruns on Fridays (hopefully) and THAT will give non-regular Avatar viewers a chance to catch up on the plot.?? I would be delighted if Nick chooses to do a mini-marathon of season 2 episodes around the July 4 timeframe.?? That would probably bolster the movie's ratings.

If so,??a marathon??would have to be on a weekend or holiday as you suggest (kind of like on Thanksgiving) as the Friday nights appear to have been set. I found this link announcing a summer line up at Nick, but I'm not totally sure of the accuracy.

http://www.movieweb.com/tv/news/29/12829.php

The DVD artwork has been Aang, Katara, Sokka and Zuko. So another question - has anyone heard about what the artwork is on the Season 1??disc 5?

Umm....

1. Aang didn't freeze the lava, just cooled it into plain ol' rock.?? Used really, really powerful airbending.

2. Uhh... don't know??? I guess it would be hard for him to learn from them because it would probably take a while, which he doesn't have (see answer to #5) and he'd have to stay in one place to observe them.

3.?? Yeah, I think so.?? He does seem to have Miracle Hair.

4.?? I don't know about that one.??

5. This one's easy.?? An Avatar is not "fully-realized" (i.e. he/she can't really access all his untapped power) until he masters all four elements.?? Aang has to defeat fire lord Ozai before Sozen's comet arrives??near the end of summer.???? Aang will only be able to do that if he has all his Avatar power, so he must learn all four elements before summer's end.?? I'd say he's got about 4 months left...